264 
EXPANSION OF ENGLAND. 
[LEGT. 
1740 and 1/60, when in two wars divided by a very 
hollow and imperfect peace these two states struggled for 
supremacy, and in both quarters England was victorious. 
From victory over France in India we proceeded without 
a pause to empire over the Hindus. This fact, combined 
with the other fact equally striking of the great trade 
which now exists between England and India, leads very 
naturally to a theory that our Indian Empire has grown 
up fiom first to last out of the spirit of trade. We may 
imagine that after having established our settlements 
on the coast and defended these settlements both from 
the native Powers and from the envy of the French, we 
then conceived the ambition of extending our commerce 
further inland; that perhaps we met with new states, 
such as Mysore or the Mahratta Confederacy, which at 
first were unwilling to trade with us, but that in our eager 
avarice we had recourse to force, let loose our armies upon 
them, broke down their custom-houses and flooded their 
territories in turn with our commodities, that in this way 
we gradually advanced our Indian trade, which at first was 
insignificant, until it became considerable, and at last, when 
we had not only intimidated but actually overthrown 
every great native Government, when there was no longer 
any Great Mogul or any Sultan of Mysore or any Peishwa 
of the Mahrattas or any Nawab Vizir of Oude or any 
Maharajah and Khalsa of the Sikhs, then, all restraints 
having been removed, our trade became enormous. 
But it will be found on closer examination that the 
facts do not answer to this theory. True it is that our 
Empire began in trade, and that lately there has been an 
enormous development of trade. But the course of affairs 
in history is not necessarily a straight line, so that when 
any two points in it are determined its whole course is